Our first story deals with a subculture of heavy metal music that some feel is sending a dangerous message to your kids.

The forces of evil on the dark side of devil, right?

And I want to talk tonight about the devil and demons and witches and Wizards.

And we just mix it up with hardcore and aggression and come out with something.

We face an original sound.

Loud, fast, heavy.

You know well what?

Do you got?

What do you got?

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Riff Worship podcast.

Join with you as always.

It's me, it's Dylan, it's the Dillboser with my two best friends in music, life and whatever the fuck we're doing this evening.

Oscar, Austin Meyer Paulson, I'm losing on this one.

And Justin, Mona Lisa Swindle.

How are you 2 doing?

You want to see me do an impersonation of a hot dog?

I'm doing great.

It's Halloween, it's Halloween.

It's Halloween right now.

It's definitely Sam Hayne Sawin.

I'm not sitting in my room on a random Thursday recording this on hot dog costume.

I'm scared to death.

Terrified.

Terrified.

Absolutely.

Cholesterol is terrifying.

What are we going to talk about?

We don't have a guest this year.

It's a little weird for us.

Yeah, we, we thought I, you know, as per last episode, I did mention that I thought we'd have a, a Canadian rejoining us this year, but he could not make it.

David, you are in our hearts always.

Maybe next year, maybe next year.

But this will be fun.

I'm stoked.

For the record, we're talking about today.

I am too.

I'm actually kind of surprised we.

You look it this.

This one, This one got picked the evil Elvis himself, Mr.

Glenn Allen Anzalone or as we most as we know him as as we know him mostly as a Glenn Danzig legendary singer, hardcore punk, goth rock, heavy metal, industrial, you name it, Curmudgeon.

We're talking about the self-titled Danzig record from 1988, otherwise known as Sam Hayne 4.

Yeah, pretty much.

Which we will dig into.

Obviously I am a very big fan of the 1st 4 records, which I think Austin, you're a big fan of the first 3 Misfits, so on and so forth.

Kind of my introduction to punk rock Swindle I think you are.

You've actually said you're not a fan of the Misfits or Danzig in particular for many obvious reasons.

But was this your first time listening to this record?

The whole record, Yeah, I've heard Mother countless times, but As for the full record, yeah, I've never listened to any full Danzig solo record.

Well, this is the one to definitely start with because it is the it's as bare bones as he gets for this dude.

The rest of them kind of expand upon reduction styles and different aspects of what he's into.

The first four really really good.

Nothing exists after that at all.

Does not have a long list, but what maybe was either of you guys first introduction to say Clint Danzig?

I don't know, it's like kind of hard to think of a time when he's just not around for whatever reason because you get like the Misfits.

I was definitely aware of like getting into punk rock music early on.

I mean, even when you get into thrash music, which we'll talk about later in this episode, plenty of very kind of legendary figures in the metal scene were big fans of the Misfits and Sammain and Danzig brought them out on tour.

So yeah, I don't know.

I mean, not really a time when I can remember you just not like being in the back of my brain.

And then, of course, like, some of the songs are just like, ingrained in pop culture and, you know, Hard Rock radio at this point.

So yeah, it's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly when you would have gotten into it, but it's always been around.

So to kind of use this as an opportunity to really dive into, it's cool.

Yeah, I do wish that.

I do wish there was a little bit more about the Sam Hain record because or Sam Hain era, because I'm not even, I'm not really familiar with that era.

Like I've heard a couple of the records.

I have a bootleg of Sam Hain 3, but I'm not really familiar with that music and you can't find it anywhere.

But to what you said, like he's always kind of been around in this semi legendary kind of status.

Like he's been, he's always been a favorite or a character.

I don't want to say a character, but a persona that a lot of the bands that we all listen to have somehow drawn to or or listened to.

Probably more so for his punk rock output in the late 70s and early 80s, even more so than maybe the Danzig albums, but that comes much later.

Swindle, where did you first?

Where and when did you first become aware of Glenn Danzig?

Through the Misfits getting into punk, it's The Misfits is like intertwine into the existence of punk.

It's like when people first learn about punk, it's like the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Misfits.

Like those are like among the 1st 4 bands that like you hear about, especially growing up in like the era that we all grew up in, where like kind of punk rock is a little merchandise by like Hot Topic or whatever.

So like you walk into a, you walk into a hot Topic to try and get like edgy, edgy clothing or like alternative rock clothing or whatever and you see the fucking misfit skull like synonymous with Hot Topic essentially.

I think the misfit skull, the fiend skull is probably as iconic of a iconic of like a, of any of like a logo as God, you fucking name it.

It might as well be like Happy meal or the McDonald's of like punk rock logos, because it's been on every bit of merchandise and throughout the last almost 50 years at this point.

And I, I think I became aware of them through the most obvious point, which is the Metallica record, right?

Garage Garage Days re revisited from 1998 had a had not only the Garage Days EP with it, but it also had a new cover of Die Die My Darling.

I immediately was like, what is this band?

What can I find out?

Because this is pretty obscene with what the the lyrics are of this.

It sounds like horror movie stuff.

It sounds crazy.

I got to hear all this, so I sought out.

Actually, there's a great image of like Hetfield with the Collection Volume 1 CD in front of his face at some point from like probably 87 or 88.

And that's the first thing I ever bought was Misfits Collection Volume 1.

And what I didn't know was like, this is like the fourth or fifth version of all of these songs that were created and you don't really know if it was the actual band playing on, if it was a Glenn going back and re recording tracks.

There's a lot of that stuff going on and there's been tons of reissues and different collections throughout the years.

So it's kind of this weird, like it's kind of this weird deep dive when you get into the Misfits catalog of what version am I actually hearing?

Is this this version?

Is it the version that Glenn went back and fixed in the 80s?

Or is it the version that he went and did in the 90s of the original masters and so on and so forth.

But then you find out the guy's got a solo career too.

And like along with that, that Crimson Ghost, the fiend skull, you also get the, this other skull that's part of his, his band's kind of lineage.

And we'll get into where that thing came from because it's very, it's kind of niche.

And I've never, I'd never even heard of the subject of where that came from until I started looking into Danzig like years and years ago.

And I'm a, I'm a fan of that media as well.

So it's really strange.

But let's start out.

Let's let's talk about how old Mr.

Glenn Danzig is and where his roots started and what he was into.

4IN Glen Allen Angelou in June 23rd, 1955 in Lodi, NJ.

It's almost like CCR wrote a song about that.

He is the third of four boys thinking about that.

Like I looked at this, that information in here.

It's like, God, there's four of them.

So I wonder if it's like a sequence where they all kind of look the same and it's just like family reunion.

Which one's Glenn?

Everyone's got a widow's peak, like a mile long.

Dude, everyone's got a widow's peak and everyone just has an investment in black leather and like mesh mesh clothing, but Glenn's me.

Voltron.

Fuck.

That stage.

Jake been in a pool, but Glenn's musical upbringing is kind of cool and probably something we all would have wanted.

His mother worked at a record store and basically like she would bring home different records and all The Beatles and the Stones were being played a lot.

And you know, he he stated that they heard everything.

And then he started reaching out and getting to his own music.

So he started getting into stuff like Black Sabbath, the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, all of the early kind of proto punk bands, right?

All of the stuff that, of what was to come, like all the heavy stuff throughout the early, the late 70s, early 60s, late 60s, all of that stuff.

It is funny to find out that he did have some sort of musical education going on.

Clarinet piano lessons weren't the confusing when it was the clarinet because it's evident in everything he's ever done.

It's just all over it and he's he's stellar at it.

From what I've grasped.

I I would kill to hear like Glenn do like a Jethro Tull cover or something.

I just want to hear him play hot cross buns.

Just one solo.

That's it.

That's the next Danzig tour.

Just every city, just playing hot cross buns with a recorder, which you've all had to suffer through in school.

There's some stories about him taking lessons and all this and the teacher just basically going like, I'm just going to teach you to be a copy of me.

You know, you've already figured out kind of little things here and there.

Why don't you just go do your own thing?

And what I've kind of realized about Danzig and his history is he's always been able to literally do whatever he's wanted to do.

Every instrument he's kind of picked up, taught himself how to do it.

He's played bass, drums, guitar, piano, so on and so forth.

Clearly he's a excellent vocalist, had some of his first interactions with like the industry.

He ended up roading for a couple bands or I believe it was like his brother's band at that point.

I just saw like he I mean as as young as like 11 or like 12, just you know, kind of moving drum sets around and being like a roadie behind the scenes for different bands.

And, you know, kind of in high school through like different friends that also played music, started fronting some of his own bands like Talus and Kudat and Boo Jang God, that is.

Bobby Boucher words.

Right there.

Just I'm not exactly sure I would be interested to hear what covers they were doing.

They had some original songs, sure, but they didn't I, you know, it didn't seem like these were projects that lasted very long.

They might have played like, you know, some dances or a few, you know, garages or whatever, some just very minimal performances or something.

Kudat and bujang, you know, that's got to be some voodoo thing for sure, because Glenn's always had a bit of that's that's even funnier.

Glenn's always erred toward the dark side of like literature and and study.

He's shown interest and there's some really great videos that shows him walking through his his bookcase in the early 90s.

But lots of subjects such as voodoo, witchcraft, Satanism, all of that as we get further into the career.

But around this time to Glenn decided to form a band that was poor performing, that was performing all original material.

And it was also named after Marilyn Monroe's last film, The Misfits, which also starred Clark Gable, I believe.

I believe Clark Gable was in the Misfits.

He was the love interest.

So you get The Misfits being formed with Jerry K Alpha, also known as Jerry only of the of the legendary Misfits at this point.

This was around 1977.

So essentially it's this is first wave punk rock shit.

Obviously like picking up from like the Ramones, the clashes Swindle mentioned, you know those first wave bands, probably some of the proto punk bands like the Stooges and MC5.

All of that influences there.

But you know, Glenn kind of wanted to do it himself, played all these covers, learned to sing a little bit.

He's obviously a fan of Elvis, has this vibe, has this image he's already got in mind.

And you get the Misfits, which we don't really have to go into a ton of specifics of the Misfits because that's another time for another episode.

But we all know the Misfits, We all know the songs, we all know the classics, so on and so forth.

The band is legendary for only being around about five years, but as I said, he met Jerry only in 77, formed the band.

I guess we got to talk about where the name Danzig came from.

We actually brought this up in our Behemoth episode.

It's the town of Kadansk in Poland.

We talked a little bit about that because I believe Nergal spent some time in that area.

Well, it's like Danzig is the original name of this town in Germany, and then it was annexed in the Poland I think after the war.

And then so now it's known as Kadansk.

Yeah, but there's no like it's probably that I couldn't find any actual confirmation on like, hey, that's what I took it from.

Honestly probably heard it and thought that sounds really cool and I'm going to use it.

That's, I would say that's it, knowing some of the interviews and videos of this gentleman that I've seen throughout the years.

But as I mentioned, Danzig, the Misfits continue to move on through the late 70s and early 80s playing mini shows, going through mini band members, releasing mini God.

They technically only released 2 full lengths as a band while they were still active and tons of seven inches EPS and 12 inches.

I mean they had their own like fan club before they were really even a band where you can mail in and get the shit and get these exclusive like EPS and and all sorts of stuff and merchandise.

But obviously the band plays its last show, which is chaotic as fuck, on October 23rd, 1983.

At some point throughout the show, the drummer is the initial drummer, is Hammered, the drummer of the Necros then comes up, finishes the set, and Glenn kind of announces like this is the last show.

But during this time period, there were also things that Glenn was doing to see what was going to be next 'cause I'm assuming he saw the writing on the wall with this situation.

But around summer 1985, he signs with Caroline Records, which ends up taking care of the plan 9 records releases of of Glenn's career, Misfits, Samhain, that sort of thing.

And basically like there's a lawsuit that entails with all of those releases going on.

And I think, I think there's still some issues going on with that and that may be why we're not seeing some of the Samhain releases.

Because yeah, I, yeah, I wish.

It's kind of funny that all the misfits stuff got settled pretty much beforehand.

And now we're we're talking about this on the, you know, cusp of all of these Danzig reissues as well.

But yeah, it's kind of funny that that none of those records have really seen like a proper reissue in quite some time.

Like I think they did like a box set in the early 2000s maybe?

Yep, and then maybe it's and Glenn may own all the rights to him.

At this point I would be shocked if he doesn't.

And it just may be like, I'm bored.

I don't want to put this stuff out anytime soon.

Whereas the Danzig releases were a little different.

Maybe it it would be nice.

It would be nice to have those to like for people to hear it, such as myself.

So after the Misfits kind of close it, you kind of come to find like in doing research to this, that he's been kind of like planting the seed for different shit for a long time.

I mean, even during Misfits recordings, he recorded a single Who Killed Marilyn?

Which I, I want to say there's a Metallica interview with like MTV or VH1 where Kirk Hammetts like wearing the single artwork.

So obviously those guys were hip to that too.

So he's like cutting singles while they're doing like Walk Among Us and planting the seed for the next project.

Sam Haines, like all throughout the Misfits.

I mean, he's writing songs that would ultimately become Sam Haines songs.

I think The Shift, The howl, all murder, all guts, all fun.

He could not be named.

Those are songs that all were on the first Sam Haines record that he wrote while his time.

During his time in the Misfits, he also met a bunch of people from Sam Haim while he was in the Misfits.

I mean, Eric Spellman, who would also become a member of Danzig, also known as Erie Vaughn, was in a project named Rosemary's Babies and he met through Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein.

Al Pike of Reagan Youth kind of helped lay the seed for some of that early Sam Haines stuff.

He met him during that Steve Zing, just like multiple people who would ultimately end up in this band.

I think for a while he even like he was trying to like piece it together kind of towards the end of the misfits, like members of minor threat, negative approach, Reagan Youth, morning note, like all these bands ultimately could have ended up playing in Sam Payne and actually 1.

I believe it's a Lyle for Minor Threat actually did play guitar first in that version of the band, but several lineup changes later, I think it's like around 1986, they play technically their last show at the Ritz in New York City, and they're kind of getting scouted by different labels.

You have like Elektra and Epic.

They're at the crowd.

But of course, famous producer Rick Rubin, who we've mentioned a few times at the on the show, was in attendance and also very interested in maybe not necessarily working with Samhain or even some of the members of the band, but more specifically Glenn Dantic.

Like I think he just wanted he knew he wanted to work with Glenn in sub capacity.

That that singer fella, don't know much about the band, but that singer fella I I can do something with.

I can, I can mold them.

I can make them who I want them to be.

But yeah, as you said, Rick Rubin enters, he sees the bands.

He sees the Sam Haines show at the Ritz and basically approaches Danzig at some point after this.

And it's like, hey, I want to sign you.

I want to take care of.

I want to do this.

I want to whatever your next record is.

But I don't know how I feel about the rest of your band.

I I know I want you.

And also at some point in this, he states that he's not a fan of the Misfits, which I just thought was hilarious.

It's like, yeah, I don't think I'm not a fan of the Misfits.

And Glenn just kind of says like, I don't really give a shit, but OK, thanks for letting me know, bud.

But I believe Glenn has stated that like, yeah, I was told that like backstage there's this like guy going nuts about our show, our set, so on and so forth.

And I walk up and there's this like ZZ Top looking guy going just going off and it's Rick and you kind you get the this weird relationship that starts and goes on for the next seven or eight years really with Rick Rubin and Glenn Danzig hand in hand.

But as as I mentioned, Rick wasn't really interested in most of the band and if not all of the band.

And it seems like Erie was just kept on to play bass on this probably just based off of Glenn going Erie's staying at this point.

But yeah, sure, everybody else, I'm not happy with the guitar player from the guitar playing situation from Samhain, you know, there's stories about him having to record some of the guitar parts in the studio and and so on and so forth.

And I guess Glenn was just like, I need somebody competent can play the shit that I write.

I don't write hard shit.

Yeah, I need someone who's like actually there to play guitar because like you, you know, they they're in during this whole time they're writing for Samhain 4, right?

That ultimately becomes this, this record.

And he's like, there's like stories of him going like, oh, where's it's like Pete, Damien Marshall, I believe he's like, where's where's Pete?

Where's Damien?

Oh, he said you could just do it.

And I'm like, oh, well, all right, I guess I hired a guitar player for whatever.

But yeah, so you're right.

I mean, they they keep eerie, but you know, they kind of slowly shed their skin of basically the other members of this band.

It's not related to riffs, but I just want to say that it's fucking crazy to me that this is happening at the same exact time as like licensed to Ill by the Beastie Boys and Raising Hell by Run DMC.

Also for both.

Like Rick was in the process of starting the like foundational blocks of hip hop at the same exact time like the same year.

That's fucking crazy.

And, and they even when we get to the guitar player in a minute, he's even talking about like, you know, like, hey, I I really want to sign this band Slayer.

What do you think?

What do you think of the drummer?

He doesn't want to do it.

What it was.

He's like, oh, well, they're pretty rad.

I might know a few drummers.

And of course, the rest is history there.

But yeah, so they're like all these, like, very influential piece pieces, like you're saying, all the same time.

Here's Glenn Danzig in the background preparing for his first solo record.

And as you mentioned before, you know, the interest from all of these other labels were coming forth for Sam Hain, which is pretty wild, to be honest.

Sam Hain is pretty abrasive sounding if you really get down to it.

But they ultimately end up signing with Rick's label, Def Jam, which would become Deaf American in time.

Yeah, with this record.

Yeah, exactly.

Yes, with this record, because Rain and Blood still had the Def Jam logo on it at that point and I think subsequent pressings have been switched to the deaf American thing.

But during this time too, as Austin mentioned, there is a search and a search or hunt to no pun intended for the record, but search or hunt for the new guitarist.

And it seemed, God, I wish you would have used his own name, because that name is actually cooler than what he chose.

But enter John Wolfgang Knoll, AKA John Christ, who auditioned for the band and kind of badgered Glenn about playing with the band on multiple demo tapes, even calling them at some point.

Yeah, he did.

He almost, he didn't even really want to do it at first.

Like he's, he's like kind of just this random dude from Baltimore.

He was attending Townsend University in Townsend, Maryland.

He's, you know, it's funny to listen to this record and also realize that this is a guy who was studying like, jazz composition and theory.

And then you get like just mostly like kind of a steak and potatoes.

A/C, DECE rock record.

He wasn't using it.

Yeah, it.

Wasn't on.

There some of the some of the solo stuff is fun, but there's not it's, you know, it's, it's pretty straightforward.

And and maybe that's due to like most of this record kind of being constructed or at least like most of the parts before he even joined the band, so that maybe that's part of it.

But he had gotten connected with Danzig through London May, which was the second drummer of Samhain.

So London May's parents apparently owned or like worked at a architectural firm in Baltimore, which had one of its employees was a friend of John Christ.

And so he's like, hey, I've heard through the Grapevine, their son is they're, he's in a band.

He's looking for a guitar player.

They're they got a bunch of records.

Maybe you should try out.

And he's like, ah, fuck that.

I, I don't know who this is.

Like I'm into, I'm not really a punk guy.

Like I'm into like Judas Priest and like all these kind of more Hard Rock things, like whatever.

Six months later, it's like Christmas time and same friends like, hey, still looking for, they're still looking for a guitar player.

And they might sign with Rick Rubin, who had already like done some of the releases that Swindle's talking about.

So he recognizes the name and he's like, OK, well, maybe this should be something.

And I think gets connected with London and he sees some of them, sees some of his playing, sets up an audition with Glenn and he he drives to New York City and basically waits all night to even audition.

He's like the last one at midnight.

They give him like 10 minutes and he kind of just, you know, goes through a few of the songs.

I think based on some of the really bad mixing of some of the Sam Haines records, just to put it, you know, frankly, he Danzig had to like show him a few of the parts.

But, you know, he this is a jazz trained, you know, classically trained musician.

So he picked it up right away.

I think there was a story about him like bleeding all over his guitar.

He kind of nicked his finger and he bled all over Danzig.

So he's there was some like, is this guy crazy?

Is he on speed or something like that?

But I think he ran through some ACDC riffs or some some old kind of like more classic metal riffs that Rick Rubin actually was a big fan of.

He liked the way that he was playing.

And so Danzig wasn't entirely stoked from what I understand at first, but Rick was the one who kind of like pushed for John Christ to be in the band and said, like, we'll get you a second audition.

But that didn't come for another month.

And like Dylan mentioned, you know, this guy's about to start college.

He needs to know what he am I going to join this band or am I going to go to school?

And so he basically, you know, fills up Glenn's voice or, you know, his tape machine with him just jamming some of the songs that he had rehearsed or some of the tapes that he was learning to do before.

He's like, all right, man, can you stop calling me?

We'll set up an audition.

And through that, they agreed to have him join the band.

And, and as you mentioned, with the connection here of London may kind of setting all this up, London's time with Glenn was not too much longer after that.

It was his time to go too.

But basically London was fired and it got narrowed down to two people, which is really fucking interesting to find out who these two people were.

You know, I believe it was, I believe Rick asked Glenn, who would you want?

And he goes, well, there's two people.

It's either Bill, filthy animal tailor from Motörhead or Chuck Biscuits.

And there is a, there's a video that I, I put in the resources here of like, I found this guy that did this whole retrospective and apparently there's the connection with Chuck Biscuits was like someone called Chuck said, Hey, how much would it take you?

How much would it take to pay you to come play for Danzig?

And he just goes, nothing hangs up the phone and he's there the next day.

But you know, Chuck's got kind of a kind of a, he's kind of a kinsman when it comes to like punk rock.

Obviously he played in bands such as DOA, black flags, circle chirps and also like a early era of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which is wild to think about.

I'm sure it's like a fill in, but the fact that it came down between Chuck Biscuits and Phil Taylor is pretty fucking wild and it would be interesting to see or hear what this record would sound like with Phil Taylor.

On it yeah.

And it's just funny they were kind of they shield away from it just because they were thought like well this guy's you know he's he's dug in he's an older guy he's probably not going to like click with Danzig calling the shots.

But then it turned out he got back together with Motörhead not long after it.

So it kind of made sense for that.

But it.

Probably would have been busier, like a lot more 100% a lot more driving if Bill had played.

The double bass on the, you know, on the record would have been pretty crazy to hear.

But I, I want to say this about Chuck too, is that throughout the years of like being a Danzig fan and kind of looking into Chuck's background, it was always listed that like Chuck was this powerhouse of a drummer.

And when we get into the record a bit like it's kind of weird because you don't really hear it on this record much.

You don't really hear it till you get to like Danzig 3 ultimately, when you really get to hear him like beating the shit out of his kit.

But it is it is interesting how like the band was essentially put together around Glenn and the band didn't even really have a name at this point yet.

You know, he he wanted to get away from the Samhain name.

I think there's points in time where he did want to use his own name, but he ultimately wouldn't or didn't necessarily want to go all the way in with it because he didn't want it to sound like a Billy Idol kind of situation.

But ultimately it came down to Glenn's going to use his own name, save his the band.

Yeah, I've, I've also heard maybe some like, I don't know at what point of this is true.

Like he seemed like, yeah, I just, if I change my name, you know, I won't, I won't ever have to, you know, I could if people leave like it's whatever, I don't have to like start a new band again or do this.

Then I also heard there might be some like more legal ramifications to like according.

There's a really great, you know, database of misfits and like misfits related projects called Misfits Central.

And one of the things they mentioned was in order to avoid a lawsuit over royalty disagreements with like the Samhain stuff, they, they just changed it to the Danzig.

And, and this is kind of where you mentioned, you know, him recording over previous members performances, I think on the 3rd Samhain record, 'cause that came out technically after they had disbanded already, he got some of the Danzig members to record their parts over it.

So maybe that I don't know, but I.

Mean that that's just what?

That's a that's 100% what?

What for sure happened with the re recording part now the namesake stuff, I could be a blending of those somewhere in the middle with all of that.

But it at this point in time you've got the Danzig lineup set up.

It is Irie Vaughan on bass, John Chrysler guitar, Chuck Biscuits on drums and Glenn Danzig on vocals.

But the album was recorded from September of 87 to April of 88, which looking back at it, it's kind of wild to think that records were recorded so far in advance and then would have released so much later, where it's like we look at modern times and the records recorded in a month and then it's out like two months later, right.

But it was recorded at Atlantic Recording Studios and Chung King Metal New York City, which is kind of has some history with like a lot of the local hardcore bands around there, CRO Mags, New York hardcore in general, just all with that.

But also it ties in with a lot of the early hip hop that Swindle was getting into like the Beastie Boys and all of those acts as well that Rick was very keen to work with and was known for working with at the time.

But the band was eager to begin pre production and at this point in time, Rick was spending quite a bit of time out in LA and there was an agreement made.

There's an agreement made for a movie called less than 0.

And I actually brought this up when we were talking about doing this episode about this track that I actually got confused that Danzig had written for Roy Orbison, which he actually he both of those tracks that we're talking about ended up on the less than 0 soundtrack, right?

One was obviously the the track less than 0, which is accredited to Glenn Danzig and the Power and Fury Orchestra.

And then you've got the Roy Orbison track as well.

They both ended up on there.

So essentially, Rick signs up to do this record, but he had also signed to basically be the musical director for this film less than 0 that came out in 88.

And so he's spending a lot of time in Los Angeles and the bands like, what the fuck?

We're like trying to record this record.

And so I, I think from what I read, they were like hitting it off.

They're hanging out a lot.

He's like, oh, well, hey, if you want me to come back and do this record, then let's, let's get this process moving.

Why don't you write 2, Help me write 2 songs for the soundtrack to the movie.

And so, yeah, you essentially have you and Me less than 0, which the Fury Orchestra is just another name.

It's just the members of dancing.

It's the first time they actually recorded together in A room.

It's the first time with they've worked with Rick Rubin, although I believe Erie Vaughn doesn't play bass on this.

Like he didn't really like the way it sounded or the parts or he maybe couldn't get it.

So there's like another producer engineer that actually it does end up playing on that track.

But yeah, they he worked with Roy Orbison for a track that plays through the movie's credits.

And there's actually like, like, photos of them together in a room, which is crazy.

It's like the, like, just the fact that though, I mean, I thought when I heard that, like, Danzig had provided music or like when Johnny Cash had covered Danzig songs, I'm like, that's crazy.

And there's pictures of them together or he mentions them by name, which is like, we're in a simulation.

This is crazy.

This doesn't make any fucking sense.

But this is even crazier to me.

Like the year before Roy dies, he works with Glenn Danzig to record a song for this movie, which incredible.

It's a great song.

You should.

People should check it out.

Both those tracks are fucking great on that record.

I think the You and Me Less Than 0 is one of his strongest vocal performances ever.

It's fucking wild.

And that Roy Orbison track is killer.

There's a great interview from close to 10 years ago now that he did with Rolling Stone where he talks about the recording process of that song with Roy.

And they asked him something along the lines of what was it like writing a song for Roy Orbison?

He goes, well, it was Roy Orbison's song.

It wasn't mine.

It's like it was his song.

And like sitting in the studio with them, he's like, oh, here, you know, here's a guitar.

Oh, can can I play that?

And Roy's like, that's a $30,000 guitar.

He's like, I can't fucking touch this thing.

Like fucking play it.

They're guitars, man.

Go for it.

But you get this sound, you get Glenn doing all of this essentially before the full length is even done.

And out like this is probably still still in the phase when the band's not even named.

And Rick's just like, hey, come do these songs with I know you can do it.

Like fuck it.

And probably not even knowing, or maybe knowing a little bit about Glenn's background too, of being into like Roy Orbison is like.

Oh, yeah, there's some stuff on, like, there's some stuff on the next record that like, would be right up Roy's alley or like just kind of that era of music.

But you know, you have this huge chunk of time where the record's being recorded and it's like, OK, you have Rick working on this movie.

And then also it seemed like they had done a bunch of pre production before, like they got in the studio, I think recorded some drum tracks.

I, I really listened to this interview where John Christ had talked about recording like Twist the cane or she rides.

Like, like they put together a lot of material and then when they got it back, they were like, Oh, this sounds like shit.

So they just scrapped it.

And it was like kind of towards the end of the year.

So they they scrapped it and then I think went to a different studio after the holidays to like finally put to get put the rather record together.

And that seems pretty typical maybe of like where Glenn was at because he's recorded at so many different studios throughout the years and done different takes at different things.

And you know, I essentially his first major record he's ever done.

You know, the Samhain records were all self produced.

You know, the misfit stuff was all kind of self produced or done by friends and having your your name on the front of a record that is your debut full length and having to go well, pre production sounds terrible.

Let's go somewhere else.

You know, that's being also being able to have that support from a record label, a major record label and the guy that's helping run the record label and and create this thing is like, yeah, fuck it, do whatever you want, man.

And this is during the era too.

We're like Ruben was a little bit more present, like he was present and everything.

He wasn't kind of this guru that set back and kind of consulted.

He was like hands on with every fucking thing when it came to the production and and everything but.

And writing I will find like there's some songs that were completely reworked based on just like write what he suggested.

The biggest one.

The biggest?

One, absolutely, because I, you know, not to get too into the weeds with that track, but it kind of started out more so like a Misfits track just right all down strokes and just kind of going through it.

We obviously know it's much more nuanced now, but during the recording period of this time, Danzig had a couple friends in the studio kind of throughout this period.

1 James Hetfield of a little band from California that no one's ever heard of ever again.

But James and Kirk were I guess, around the studio at this time.

That being James Hetfield and Kirk Hammond of Metallica were.

In the studio.

Around the studio at this time, and there were, I mean, James is on the record for a couple tracks there, most notably Twist of Kane in possession.

He was just kind of hanging around the studio and I guess a conversation was had of hey, one of can I jump on you want to come on?

And Glenn was like, fuck it, sure, why not?

To Glenn's recollection, there's 3 tracks that he's on, but by by information it's 2.

For sure two, yes.

I feel like maybe I've seen where the third one is, but I have no fucking idea.

Like it's like, I wonder if he even said it just to fuck with people.

Like, yeah, there's probably a third one in there.

And then people have spent like the last 30-40 years, like trying to figure out which one he's.

On it, he's fucking on it and then it's it's just not happening.

I'm not convinced that he's not on 1/3 track.

It's probably there.

It may just be buried in the mix because you can hear him a lot on possession for sure.

Twisted Kane, he's a little more blended, but he's there.

He's he's doing his thing and like he and Danzig have very similar cadences of like vocal embellishments that they do.

So like it's there.

It blends really well, but also knowing that like this is pre, this is postmaster of puppets Metallica.

This is 87.

This is post Cliff passing away.

Yeah, I just imagine, 'cause you know, I feel like you can kind of place, you know, if that you say a certain area era and that you just envision what James looks like at this point, how he sounds.

And also he's probably really stoked to just be there.

I mean, as we mentioned earlier, those guys were like huge fans and like, you know, Cliff especially, and all those guys just wore Sam Hayne and Misfits T-shirts.

And I think Glenn had mentioned they had met on the Master Puppets tour.

I think Sam Hayne had done some shows with Ozzy before Metallica done, so they got connected that way.

But I I feel like almost like this record two would it almost aligns more so with their later influences or maybe like what they're trying to go for, like Metallica especially like like, hey, we just want to be like a Hard Rock band.

And here's this guy who's doing it very, very well.

So it seemed right up his alley to be able to like, go in and at least put some sort of input to the record.

100% there's a phone call that apparently took place where a really shithoused Cliff Burton called, called phone, called, called him at home, called Glenn Danzig and was like, what are the lyrics to Last Caress?

That's what?

And Glenn's like, I just gave them to him.

I just mailed them to him.

And like, it was that easy back then kind of thing.

Like, hey, how do I get Glenn's number?

Well, it's probably on the back of an old Misfits press.

I bet he still lives at the same house in Lodi.

Like fuck it, let's just call him.

And Cliff introduces Metallica to the band.

It gets them all into it.

I think there's great stories of Cliff like driving this old VW van, like in San Francisco traffic like a madman.

And just like his steering wheel was just beat to shit cuz he'd be blaring these Misfits tapes and just beating the hell out of his steering wheel while he's doing this with this head of red hair just flying around.

So little bit of fear, little bit of trauma bonding from having to be in a car with them.

And you're into the Misfits and you're on Glenn Danzig's first record, which is adds a great touch to a record that doesn't have a ton of like, crazy production stuff on it.

I mean, there's vocal harmonies, there's vocal layering going on, but not a ton.

And to know that you've got, you know, a member of this larger band on there that could not actually be listed in the credits due to label issues, that being Elektra.

And I'm wondering if that was more so the label not wanting them on there or the fact that Glenn denied signing to the label.

I would love to find that out.

Yeah, I wonder.

I feel like that's a normal thing.

Like, hey, you can't like record and be on another label's record or something, something stupid.

It's it is funny to think this is pre like as you mentioned like the band being a Hard Rock band with Metallica because James ended up on a later era COC track and he was listed as a guest so it's like huh he doesn't have fuck you oh Craig just yet.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, exactly right.

To touch on, you're kind of mentioning like how like straightforward and and kind of minimal this record is.

I would also, you know, say that kind of comes through in the album artwork.

Like it's pretty minimal.

It's like, hey, here's the name, here's the iconography.

Here it is.

And if we know anything about Glenn Danzig, he loves a lot of shit.

He loves.

Man does this guy love stuff and especially comic books and horror movies.

It's been done to death through the Misfits and Sam Hain.

But of course you would have to take it for the Danzig band as well.

The the font alone, I believe comes from the giant Gila monster movie.

There's like the font for that movie he had taken for Samhain and then appropriated for Danzig as well.

The the iconic skull, which kind of like a deep cut comic book series, the saga of Chris Starr.

There is one issue in particular, Chris Starr, Crystal warrior #8 where the skull itself is it like kind of at the bottom of the front cover and it's like that's it.

That's 100% what it is.

Like they he just took it.

There have been, there have been arguments kind of throughout the years between Glenn and the comic creator, the artist too, about that.

And look that shit up because it is.

It is kind of funny because Glenn is a great creative output person, but man, he's more stubborn than I am with a lot of shit too.

And that's saying a lot.

But it it also, what I like about the artwork too, is it's minimalist.

It almost looks like he just took it, cut shit out and shoved it on there, which I do like about that a lot, especially for his debut.

It's like, hey, it's photocopied.

It still has this kind of punk rock thing going on with it, right?

The new presses that I have, when I couldn't tell you about the original presses, but you open up, it's just a gatefold and it's just a color photo of the band.

That's it.

The album is in a sleeve.

It's just got the lyrics on it.

That's it.

It is straightforward as it can get.

But his tie in with Horror is just so deep and just in in every aspect of the band, even today.

Like, I mean, there's tons of merchandise, as you mentioned, that's got different things on a lot of different fucking things.

But like his roots with Horror, I mean hell if he he used a Geiger piece of art for Danzig 3 which is just terrifying to look at the imagery in the videos alone.

He's even made a few of his own.

God damn, that's right.

Yeah, that's right.

Veritek was one of them, which is the name of his own comic book company.

Veronica the one The one that comes to mind is the Wild West one, the vampire Old West movie.

Has has Devin Sawa in it I believe.

If it does, great, I think you're right.

I, I think Devin saw was.

Like, hey, shout out, Devin saw.

I'll give that guy some work.

All of that, dude, They're, they're on, shout out idle hands.

I think they're both on shutter.

I think they they still are.

And I have.

When I was drinking, there were points.

I was like, I can just turn this on right now and have fun with it, but I haven't.

Swindle's login information for shutter account is if you want to watch it.

But I, I haven't done it yet.

There's still a few more.

There's still a little bit of time this evening once we're done that I could probably toss it on.

But yeah, you know, Glenn is tied in with every aspect of his band, has his fingerprints all over it, from the music, from the production to the image to who's in it to how it's to how it's released and everything.

And that's so vastly important to this, the output of the OR the output of this band.

But what's most important to the music, right.

So we've got the album.

Let's fucking get into this thing.

What I like the most about it is it's short.

It's it's a tight 40 minutes, not including the cover.

It's fucking 35 to 36 minutes long.

It is I, I don't necessarily think it's his best record, but I do think it is a great starting point for his output in general.

Like you can start here and go backwards.

You can start here and move forward.

It's a really good gateway record too for people getting into like heavier music, right?

Because this is like 4 on the floor heavy, like almost new wave of British heavy metal shit.

Like there's points on here that sound like, except in certain points, like certain swings and certain grooves.

Not not to say there's no Blues or some punk rock influence stuff that's going on in here, but like it all.

It all just works for where his voice was at the time and the type of band he put together and the type of music he was writing.

It just all fucking worked really well.

Yeah, it's, I mean, every song has a hook or like a standout moment, whether that be, I mean really I would say it's either the guitar or the vocals.

Because if the if the if the guitar is not doing something that's like especially riffy or hooky, the vocals are the thing that's carrying it.

So.

But I mean, every song really is just like there might be a couple parts, but you really latch onto it and ride with it.

I mean, there's not, I wouldn't, you know, for 40 minutes, I don't think there's a lot of fat.

There's not a lot of parts necessarily, but there's not a lot of fat.

It's just like, hey, here's what it is.

Like here's the riff.

We're going to play that for a while and then maybe we'll throw something at you and the bridge or, you know, the chorus.

But for the most part it's it's straightforward and that and that's straightforward down to like the tone of the record in general.

Like I don't think John is using much if anything I think that's just like a guitar plugged up to a fucking you know, I think I read it might be a VHT or like a like a Pitbull.

Maybe it's a Marshall, I don't know.

But he didn't really use like a ton of shit.

Maybe I saw possibly it was a boss OverDrive, but it sounds like it's just plugged straight up into the amp.

Like there's not much on that.

Yeah, it's low gain like it is classic rock gain staging.

Wouldn't be surprised if you said if it's like an old JCM 800 or if it's like, but old Plexi or something he's plugged into on this.

Just from the tone of everything, you know, it's this is a vocal record.

This whole record was obviously written by Glenn and as as with most of the music from this band's output, but you can definitely tell like the music is very it's there to it's there to showcase what the showcase is of this album, which is his vocal performance, right?

You know, it's there are notes that he's hitting on this record that I don't know if he's traditionally trained as a vocalist, but the dude knew tone.

The dude knew the dude knew how to like hit vibrato and all sorts of stuff.

And he's belting this shit out hard.

I mean, there's points in like one of my favorite tracks like Soul and Fire where he is just fucking going for it.

But he you also get the nuance of he can sing sensitively.

It's a ballad and there's like these great layered vocals all over this album.

He does a lot of the like in Mother.

He does a lot of the the kind of evil layering I call it, where there's like a spoken low mixed vocal with him singing over it.

So it does that kind of demonic thing, which is fucking cool and one of my favorite things that he's done for his whole career.

Swindle As a person who's not as familiar with this record, what was like?

What were your feelings with it?

I really also liked the vocal performance on Soul on Fire.

Twista Kane was one of the songs that it was like very obvious to me that it was a whole song kind of sculpted around one riff.

But I really like the the way that they rewrote the rift for the bridge and it's like it's the same thing, but like the timings just changed a little differently.

It's composed a little different way.

I really, I really like that it's a very simple riff.

I mean, all the riffs are really simple.

Not of this world.

That riff is like, it just sounds spooky, like the minor third or whatever.

Those two songs together, and I don't know if it's just because it's in the same key or whatever, they're pretty, pretty similar, but they work so well, like going from one to the other.

Agreed, I've got that in my notes.

Like it does feel like the twist of cane riff feeds in and out of this world, and it's just a variation of the twist of cane riff.

That's one of my favorite tracks on the record.

It's more of a deep cut, but like there's some cool shit that he does on there.

You get some of you get the first like John Christ soloing on that track too.

You also get like some of the subtle things that Reubens production at this point in time was known for.

Very, very just, it is what it is, very dry recording.

Very much like we want the band to sound like the band, which is something he utilized with Slayer and Rain and Blood.

Just zapped all the reverb out and was like, this is what you guys sound like, put it out and it's very much on here, although you're lending more towards a vocal mix on this thing.

So like, yeah, let's do, let's add some keyboard here and there, which Glenn's a fan of.

Let's add some atmosphere, which Glenn's a fan of and maybe Rick wasn't.

And there's some tension about that throughout the years.

And she rides though that like guitar stabbed bend yes, that's in like the opening riff and also the chorus that is in.

I didn't get a chance to like listen to the album but there is some song on fucking No Heroes that Kurt Balu uses that like that exact bend stab and.

That's funny.

I know the track, Yep.

Yeah, just a classic blue stomp riff.

The swing on that track, the stripper song?

Yep, he can say it's about Lilith all day long.

Listen.

Hey, I've seen the video.

There's Harley Davidsons in the background of that thing.

Bless Glenn.

Like I the first time I saw that video, I was probably 14 years old and I watched it and I'm like, there's a lot of ass.

Oh yeah, it's all ass.

Yeah, this is like, I feel like this is a true romance kind of situation, but to me, this, that track alone kind of sounds like LA Woman era Doors.

Oh yeah.

Like his vocal cadence, everything like that.

It's a cool track.

It's got a swing.

It's got a pound to it.

Like it's Blues 100% exactly like that blue shuffle, Right, right.

And, you know, we've essentially just talked about the first half of this record at this point because, like, it's so short.

You can go, Oh yeah, there's really cool parts and all of this.

And you know, you get to like Soul on Fire, as we mentioned, you have all these great vocal hooks, but then you get like, you get a fast one, which is Am I Demon.

It's that's thrash to me.

It's almost Children of the fucking Grave.

Like the the whole pacing of it.

My favorite thing about Am I Demon, not only is it's just a really cool song, there's some modulation going on.

Glenn sounds like violent on it, but there's a tie in the name.

Am I Demon always makes me think of the Misfits track Skulls, which has the lyric Demon I am in face I peel.

So anytime I think of Am I Demon, I'm like, this has to be some sort of tie back to that or some sort of influence or some sort of like literature he was reading at the time.

But that track, there's a really cool video and it's probably low quality of shit, but like Hank 3 is just in this room, like this practice space.

And Glenn is like playing Am I Demon with Hank 3.

And I always remember going back to that like Hank three looking like he's known to look and there's Glenn just like belting it the fuck out.

But what a cool track.

What a faster track.

You know, there's not a ton of really fast tracks on here.

They're always kind of that mid tempo one.

I would say like evil Thing and the Hunter kind of fall into that and the Hunter being a cover.

But then you've got like these three almost atmospheric tracks that hit on here like one right after the other.

Mother, the iconic Danzig song, most known Danzig track of all time.

It was on Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero, Metallica, maybe even.

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.

Yeah, yes, yes, it was.

And what's cool about that track is it's just three chords.

Yeah, it's really not even a riff.

It's three chords.

It's like a BAG progression, and it's like, oh, OK, this is fucking great.

There's atmosphere, there's mood to it.

There's also a really great kind of story behind why it was written and what it was written about.

The PMRC.

Tipper Gore, the PMRC, and it was about essentially the parental advisory labels going on all the records, right?

Tipper Gore and this collective of people, and I'm summarizing a lot of this because I think we've all dove into this a little bit, but basically this was a period of time where Tipper Gore was really bored and was like, I what was, was it Darling Nikki that really set her off?

There's a few, yeah, that's a that's a big one.

Suicide Venom on and to be fair, yes, it is.

I'm pretty, yeah, there's some, there's some horny tracks on that right list for sure.

But I just remember the great court scenes with Frank Zappa, John Denver, of course, Dee Snyder, like all of that shit going on.

And Glenn was pissed too, because, you know, he wanted to obviously didn't want to be censored.

He wanted to put out the art that he wanted to put out.

And even the video for this track has a little bit of controversy around it too, because there was a, an unedited version of the video that was filmed that depicts Glenn like, standing above this woman.

And like, it makes it look like he shredded a chicken above her and like the blood's all over the woman and everything.

And initially there was an edited version of the video too, that he thought was being submitted to MTV to be played.

But Reuben submitted the unedited video and it's the one that got played and it just set everybody off and all sorts of shit.

I believe it even upset Glenn to a point of like fuck.

Well, yeah, I'm sure you're like, hey, here's like the the idea I had in mind.

And so, yeah, they didn't get any, any play.

And it, we could talk about it, you know, and the aftermath of the record, but it would essentially be kind of a remixed, revamped version of this song in a new video that would be put out like a few years later that ultimately broke the van.

Years later, so and and it's a classic track, you know, Yeah.

Oh, this is like.

Yep, like I said, it's American Pie dude.

Like this is it's everywhere.

If you don't know these three chords, like, I don't know, like have you ever heard have you ever turned on the radio before?

Like, right.

That's the great thing about it.

I mean, most of these songs are like maybe like a few chords.

Sure, you know, give or take.

But like you could put this on and like learn to play guitar to this record.

Or at least like, hey, I have like kind of a sense of like rhythm and kind of like maybe the the foundational makings of a rock record or like a Hard Rock record, metal, whatever.

It's all here.

It's all on this record for sure.

Like this is perfect.

Evil thing.

The beginning of that song is like fucking Zeppelin so hard.

100%, no question.

That is, that is Rock'n'roll, that is Black Dog, that is all sorts of that shit.

And it's essentially just that riff the entire song by Possession.

I know there was some issues with Swindle being able to really listen to that one.

That is such a nasty, dissonant, droning sounding song.

There's some weird pitched like spooky vocals at the beginning of it that are like later.

Shows too.

I I think you're right and his vocals in the chorus of this are awesome because it's essentially just him.

Like he's mixed really high and you can there's no way you can't tell that's him and the lay.

I'm sure, I guess people, the label were just like, Nah, I can't be him.

Like there's nobody that sounds like Hetfield at this point.

There's no one.

Possession in my 1 listen reminded.

That was the track that reminded me of Sabbath because of the like big bendy note.

Yeah, all over the course.

This is the one that made me think of except I believe no sorry that's the next track End of time.

But Possession is just like gnarly.

This is also the first time that like Chuck really stands out for me with his playing.

There's some great fucking fills on the back portion of the song to really show like what kind of drummer he is.

He does some like I don't know, like syncopated stuff with like that double bass and stuff.

But other than that, I mean, it's pretty he's he's holding down.

On the floor.

That's it.

And that's cool.

I think it works for the record.

You know, I think I think it is funny because I do feel like all these people are very capable.

But yeah, maybe it takes a record or two for them to really like, you know, it's it's Glenn essentially like, hey, here's here's what it is.

And I do, I do think it's kind of interesting when I was listening to an interview with with John where he's like, Glenn will approach anything.

He might not know how to, like, really play everything, but he has good pitch and he's like, creative as hell.

So like, he might be like, he might sing a part to you.

And John was like, oh, you're looking for like AB Flat.

He's like, I don't fucking know, just.

And then you'll play and he's like, yeah, that's it.

That's the one, Yeah.

That's I mean, and you got to have people like that in in acts from time to time or bands or guys you play with, because those are the fun ones.

Because it's like, fuck, what's he talking about?

And then you're here like, fuck, he's right.

How does he know this shit?

And the fact too, that Glenn probably all all had this from some of his formal training as a kid and like being able to suss out anything.

And also like very punk rock of like, I don't know how to fucking do it, but I'm going to give it a shot.

Like I can fucking do anything.

With my vast knowledge of the Dead Kennedys and Jello Biafra, I know that that always turns out very well.

No one butts heads based on that.

No, no, no.

And Glenn does not butt heads with anybody.

This.

This line up lasted forever.

Everything is all good.

I do want to bring up End of Time and the reason I want to bring up End of Time is it's again, a favorite of mine.

It's a doom track to me.

It's it's heavy.

It's depressing.

It's like it sounds like the end of times.

I think the record should have ended here.

Yeah, there's, yeah, Last couple couple songs I'm like kind of whatever about.

They're not bad, but I'm like, all right, this is cool.

End of Time's cool.

I like the the James Bond riff and the choruses, Yeah.

Absolutely.

They got some little chimes going on.

I thought it was xylophone.

Yeah, right.

Exactly.

Like that you may, I don't know if you had it and Swindle may have had it, but there was a when I was a toddler, there was like a child's xylophone.

You could get all the little keys with like different colors and a little mallet.

Makes me think of that.

I wonder if it's just the key because I can't.

There's a couple things on this record where there's like instrumentation that I thought was there that might actually just be like the synthesized, Like he apparently bought the synthesizer while he was maybe just outside of the Misfits.

Like maybe he was in Samhain.

He just picked it up and he like used it on a few of those records.

And this one, there's a a part, I think in the courses of soul on Fire, which yes, is like the perfect hook.

It's so great with all those higher pitched vocal in the back.

It sounds like there's a saxophone like playing through there.

But I I couldn't find anything that would suggest someone did play it.

So I'm assuming it was, I'm sure the same key.

Yeah, so but it's cool.

There's it's such a great effect.

I love that.

You're right, there's a ton of shit like that all over this record to a point where I'm like, is it a vocal or is it a keyboard that's doing this?

Some sort of synthesizer?

You know, the first Misfit song I ever actually heard prior or post Metallica was I downloaded a version of She, which is a very early Misfit song, but it was like the earliest version.

It's probably off the very first thing they released the Cough Cool EP Matter of fact.

And she is literally just it's Glenn.

It's Jerry.

And I can't remember who drummed on the very first thing, but it's Glenn with a keyboard running through a guitar distortion pedal and like everything else and she is played with these just distorted fucking keyboard stabs.

And it's like man, this guy's been in the goth rock and like Moody shit since he was a kid.

This is awesome.

And it's still evident here.

Maybe not as in depth as what would come a couple albums later.

And, and I think that was like Glenn's one kind of gripe about the production of this record is that Rick wasn't a fan of the atmosphere as much as Glenn was.

But this was also Rick's thing at the time.

Like, I want to hear what the band's going to sound like just as the band.

Yeah, there were.

I did find that there were like a couple tracks that almost ended up on here as well.

There was a press release or like a little blurb that was written in a Thrasher magazine in an 87 issue that suggested that they were going to do an Elvis Presley cover of Trouble, which did not end up on the record.

Actually ended up on the EP that came out later called The Thrall Demons Sweat Live.

I think that's how it goes.

That's it.

Couple years later also a track that ended up on Loose Fuge Danzig 2 I'm the One was also recorded during these sessions as well.

Or like they was supposed to be.

It was.

It almost ended up on this record, but it didn't.

It's and that's a wild track to think about too, because it is when you hear that second record, it fits that second record so hard, I think.

If I'm being quite honest, I think I could go back between these two because they're they're probably the most similar out of the bunch.

But like, I love that record so much.

I think it's I mean.

It's your favorite one right out of.

The I think that's my favorite out of all of the the 1st 4.

I, I spend a lot of time with these records in my early 20s and late teens and I always thought this record was kind of like, this is the introduction.

This is what the Danzig band is.

And as you mentioned, they don't really know each other just yet.

They're still feeling each other out.

Danzig 2 is a much more refined version of this sound, maybe leaning more into the blue side of it, which it's great.

Like there's, I mean, there's some really cool shit on that record.

There's massive hits on that record.

When I heard the opening of Danzig 3 at Ford Godless is just this huge pummeling like do metal thing and that whole record is like 10 tracks of just banger after banger after banger after banger.

And I was completely and and just entrenched in it.

And then Danzig for like the older I got, the more I liked the experimentation on that one and how abrasive and weird it was at certain points.

This is this probably this record out of those first 4 for sure for me kind of falls into like the back half of the territory just because it's like I'm so into those kind of more gnarly ones for sure.

And Danzig too is because of its Blues thing and and my lack of kind of taste and Blues kind of falls on the back end as well.

But that's not to say any of these first four are bad records at all.

The first 3 in particular I think are flawless.

I think the 4th 1, you have to have it with the right person because it is.

It's very divisive, I'll say that.

And I love that record a lot.

But let's get back to this record swindle.

How did you feel about the record as a whole?

And I know you haven't listened to the other 3.

I thought it was a good rock'n'roll record.

I, I would like play this shit.

What was the record we covered after Halloween last year?

It was one of your picks.

It was Austin, one of your picks.

Damn, fuck, I don't know.

It's been a while.

We did Cradle Of Filth and then what do we do?

Well, it was a rock record.

It was a Hard Rock record.

Yeah.

Shit.

Oh, was it in solitude?

Oh yeah, that sounds about right.

Was it just maybe a spooky record?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

That's what that sounds like what you're referring to.

Yeah, I would play, I would play this like along with that in Solitude Record or like Rocky Erickson more than like Cradle Of Filth or something for like this season in particular.

That makes sense because I mean, you think about the production even on that in Solitude record, it's kind of like a maybe there's a little bit more going on as far as guitar parts and stuff go, but like, I could see the IT feeding right into each other for sure.

Yeah, it's a great record.

It's a great start to, you know, where this band would kind of build from.

You know, I I really have no complaints.

Yeah, there are a couple tracks that like, I'm really not like jazzed about and especially the cover where he like credited himself on that though, pulling pulling one out of the old Led Zeppelin hat there.

But yeah, I think for the most part, I could, I could turn these tracks on at any point and just enjoy the fuck out of them.

I mean, there's so many favorites on here.

Am I Demon?

I mean, yeah, Soul on fire.

She right.

I mean, that whole, that whole basically half, you know, 3/4 of the record is just excellent.

It is.

It's so good.

It's so strong.

So yeah, I wonder what how it would have sounded like maybe with those other tracks even that would be kind of interesting.

But it's a great start, Yeah, no complaints here.

And the records released, I think even even as far back as just a couple years ago, I thought the record was going to be like a hit right out the gate.

It it really wasn't.

You know, it was kind of a slow burn is what it was described as.

You know, it, it debuted on the charts like 125 when when debuting at 125 back then was considered like a flop almost.

Now it's like charts don't matter anymore, but the the album releases debuts on the charts.

You know?

This album's biggest track didn't, as we've mentioned before, didn't really become a massive hit to like 5 fucking years later.

It was a live version, and that's two albums later, 2 full lengths later for the band.

He was done basically with his tenure with Rick Rubin by the time shit kicked off like, which is is something to say.

I mean, he'd done his essentially his classic.

The records were out for the most part, and it wasn't until they kind of read this revamped version of the song and video had come out and and made him such a success.

So which kind of it stinks because, yeah, like, why MTV?

You're you had the chance to really push this like, you know, a few years earlier and now you're just kind of catching up and like, you know, obviously like people were hip to IT.

People love those records.

I mean, obviously, like a lot of the touring of this Metallica took him out on the road.

So it's like, hey, you know, James Gang, we've been James Gang.

We've been friends.

49.

You're on the record.

Hey, we got a, we got a record coming out too.

And so thus you have like, I think they toured like a handful of dates, some of them with Slayer.

That's why, and like we.

Spring yeah, there's some Guare dates kind of like on the East Coast, there's a Chicago date, but the one that really sticks out during this time is kind of like this infamous show that happened at the Hollywood Palladium with Slayer.

And I think John even mentions there's a story about it in an interview.

But essentially what happens is that they go to open for Slayer.

And I guess they oversold the show.

There was like about like 2 or 300 people that had bought tickets that were no, they they, they could not get into the venue.

And there was basically a fucking riot.

People like, you know, put, you know, bricks their windows and there was arrests.

And yeah, so essentially like that happened.

Not right, but I did.

Think there's photos from that show.

Oh, I'm sure and Slayer have talked about because they were banned from the venue for like almost 3 decades.

But I think there's photos and Tom Araya has mentioned it that like yeah, they were just throwing all the stadium seating and ripping it out of the floors and throwing it in the piles like they were riding.

And there's a photo of one of the piles in front of the stage and it's like, I'm sure Glenn was used to like riots and shit.

It shows from like the early punk days, but I don't know about the Slayer guys.

So seeing that shit was like we we did this also like Danzig opening up for Slayer had to be really interesting too, because there are bigger and like more aggressive bands that were booed off stage before Slayer.

So you go from those like earlier shows like that and like late 88 and then you you'd go over to the UK with Metallica and 88 playing like large amphitheaters and large theaters in general, smaller state or smaller arenas.

And like this is this is this is justice era Metallica.

So this is like the band at their tightest.

This is like probably the most vicious that band has ever been.

And it's like, all right, get ready for two hours of like thrash attack.

But first, here's 45 minutes of just solid 4 on the floor like Hard Rock.

I think it's a honestly.

It's a good balance.

I like it.

I like the balance of those two.

Yeah, they do the, I mean they play the Hammersmith Odeon 3 nights in a row.

Yeah, that's crazy.

And then I did notice they came back and did some like I'd have to see them playing with like Carnivore and stuff of it all is pretty great.

And then kind of do like their own.

It's called, you know, Out of this World tour.

So, yeah, I mean, they they did a run.

They were on the tour for a couple years off of this record.

But yeah, ultimately not a hit right out of the gate, surprisingly, as in retrospect.

You look back at it now and it's like, this is a classic record.

Everybody talks about this record.

It took a few years for this band to really get some steam rolling and and it it took a couple records.

And it's, you know, you look back and I've watched a lot of live footage from this band in different areas.

And at one point there was, I think even some DVD stuff that that Glenn had released that showed like the band playing in very small clubs, but then playing in like, larger arenas as well.

And the band was fucking locked in when they were playing live.

Like, they really came out of their shell when playing live.

And that was a big part of it.

And yeah, like, you look at the records and they're great fundamental, like heavy metal records.

Like they could hold up with anything from like the early 80s prior to like all the subgenres existing or even the late 70s for that matter, right.

And it's, they're just really solid records.

That's the only way to describe them.

Like, the album inevitably did go gold years later.

Danzig's legacy is based off of these first four records, for sure.

This.

And you know, the stuff he did beforehand and justifiably so.

Like that's the legacy for me.

I'm, I'm going to choose to listen to these 4 records as much as I can.

They're awesome.

I have the represses.

They're fantastic represses.

That's like some bucket list record shit for me.

And I can listen to this record probably a couple times a year and it still takes me back to like the first time I heard it.

And it it just, it's timeless.

That's the thing.

It's not just a classic.

It's timeless.

Like it dropped in 88, which is wild because you had thrash at its peak, you had death metal happening.

You had some of the first wave or second wave black metal bands kind of all in there.

Like extreme music was starting to really pop off.

And Glenn's like, now we're just going to do this kind of four on the floor Blues based Hard Rock record.

And it worked in the long run it worked.

And I think a lot of it had to do with how often they toured and how much they grinded in in that circuit.

And you know, like you look at maybe a contemporary of his, which came a couple years later, but like the Rollins Band, right, Different sounding band.

But you look at the end of silence, it's kind of a Blues rock record.

And you look at that and it's these kind of very just rooted, here's the four instruments.

This is what you're getting, glammo.

Like, let's do it.

And two guys that her kind of considered contemporaries even from the hardcore world of like, yeah, one's a little bit more aggressive, one's definitely more of a crooner, but like their career trajectory kind of reached that and and did different things.

But man, what a what a fun fucking record.

And it definitely fits the vibe at this time of year.

All right, we've reached that point of the episode where we like to share some things we've been listening to things we I feel you should check out and especially with it being a special time of season, love is in the air.

It's Halloween.

What do you guys been checking out?

What do we even watching?

I I really haven't watched a ton of movies this year just cuz like I've been pretty fucking busy, but I do subscribe to the Evil Mouse and I get to watch all of the Treehouse of Horror episodes.

So my girlfriend Lauren and I have been watching those from the first one.

We've been kicking about 3 or 4A night and like I I love those first ten and there are so many that I've not seen that like I see them and I go, wow, these are actually still a lot of fun.

The tree House of horror episodes from The Simpsons are just classic kind of horror schlock.

You're getting a lot of social commentary in there.

You're also getting, you know, different spoofs of different horror films and things that are topical.

The one that always sticks out to me is when all the teachers end up eating the kids and obviously like crusty trying to the evil doll, Crusty trying to kill Homer.

Like that's those are two of my favorite stand.

Outs.

Is that the one the they're like, oh, we've been reduced to like great F meat.

We need to do something.

We need to do something else.

Oh, I'm having a hard time seeing while you or I'm having a hard time cleaning this pot where you keep putting great or meat tenderizer.

All over.

Me, I love them.

I love those so much.

I, I, I just haven't had enough time.

I haven't had a lot of time to spend with film this time of year just because of being busy.

But usually most of my time, if it's not spent watching those, it's spent listening to music.

Oh, that's right.

I did watch Hal so I can't shrug that that is a bat shit insane movie that is so much fun.

That's great.

The the scenes where they've all the the ladies are like cut up and they're just floating in mid air.

The finger piano scene, dude.

The finger piano scene, The piano scene in general when she's playing piano and there's just skeletons clacking in the background.

What do we got?

What do we got around here?

The head coming out of the the well and biting her and just gushing blood and like, I bought the fucking movie because I watched it.

I was like, this is great, I can't wait to watch this again.

But that's, yeah, that's a fucking great film and that's a great suggestion.

Swindle suggested it a long time ago and I finally got around to it.

Listening though, to stick with the season.

I had the chance to see AFI a while back and in 2001 a band was put together called Son of Sam that was a a tribute to the Samhain era of Danzig's career.

So it's a very horror punk death rock, but it includes former members of Samhain and Danzig.

Along with AF is Davey Havoc on vocals.

So you have Todd Youth, London May, Steve Zing, who have all played and Sam Hang and Samhain and Danzig at different points and then is close to like a a son of that vocal styling that you could ever get with the Davey Havoc.

Davey's obviously much more of a tenor while Glenn has a baritone, but like the dude can hit fucking notes.

And this is just a really fun fucking record.

It's dark, It's it's crazy.

It's Halloween themed.

The the band ended up doing another album years later with another vocalist, but this is the fucking one.

It's just fucking cool.

It's a quick listen, put it on par with like the All Hallows EVP from AFI.

Like it's just a fun Halloween listen.

The next thing that I'm recommending is I went back based off of a early base influence of mine.

Sam Rivers of Limp Bizkit has passed away due to who knows what at this point, but he was still pretty young, 48 years old.

So I went back and I listened to the first Limp Biscuit record, which is $3 bill y'all and I.

It's the first time I've listened to it with a good set of headphones and just seeing how upfront and big the bass frequency was on that record and understanding the guy was 19 years old when the record was recorded and hearing the type of playing he was doing.

Whether you like the shit or not, Like fantastic player.

Big bummer of a loss, especially for a lot of millennials that probably got into heavier music out of that new metal sub genre.

But yeah, it's just a fun fucking record too.

My record recommendation is because last week we dug into Cave In.

My recommendation is the Songs of Towns Van Zandt Volume 3, which was put out by Neurot Recordings in 2022, which was actually the same year of Haven's most recent record, Heavy Pendulum.

The comp features three artists.

It's Cave in, Marissa Nadler and Amin Raw were like the three artists on this compilation.

It was actually the first time I'd ever listened to Marissa Nadler, and it was the first time I'd ever heard of any Townes Van Zandt songs.

When I listened to this the first time and based off the compilation, I then started listening to Townes Van Zandt because like the covers on the copper, just like so harrowing, so fucking sad because the original source material was fucking devastating.

So because of our cave in episode, I remembered that compilation.

So I'm going to recommend that.

And kind of in the same vein of harrowing and sad, I'm going to really recommend any of the Edgar Allan Poe, Rodger Corman movies.

A lot of them feature Vincent Price, but specifically I'm going to go with House of Usher.

None of the movies are especially not by like today's standards are scary, but I don't think they were necessarily scary in like the 60s.

But the like the romanticism and kind of gothic look of the movies just fits the vibe of the season so well.

And of course Vincent Price is the classic fucking hat like horror movie actor and it's one of my favorite Rodger Corman movies because a lot of what he had his hands in was so fucking bad.

But but I love so much of it.

But House of Usher is a really good Halloween classic for me.

I got a couple my listening, my record that I had, a few that I kind of like went back and forth on with what I wanted to go with.

But nothing kind of says scary and dark like black metal.

So I listened to like one of my favorite releases from a few years ago, Wretched Abyss Knock Tool, the debut record from Serena Cherry of small Bard.

She does all of the instrumentation and songwriting lyrics on this record.

Basically just a big old nerd.

They love Skyrim.

So she compiled like a set list of songs that are just all about stuff from the game.

And I love this record.

I think it's so good and like, I mean down to the cover and just like the performance, like it's, it's dark and it's it's fucking excellent.

It's released through Church Road Records and Translation Loss Records in 2021.

Svalbard has announced that they'll that they're going to be kind of disbanding and doing some final shows.

I think they announced like a final UK tour.

And then I know that they're going to be playing Prepare the Ground next year as well.

So, you know, I hope that these people kind of continue to do music.

I'm sure they will.

And, and who knows, maybe we'll get another Knock Tool record out of it.

So that'd be pretty sick.

I think, I think she's been working on it.

I've seen I've seen some like posts here and there that she is working on another Knock tour record.

That would be great.

And I know she's played some shows, so like, you know, here and there, whatever she could, I think.

But like, yeah, that would be, I would love it.

I I think that would be so amazing.

As far as my movie of choice, I've been able to watch some movies on our list this year.

We we kind of do a list every year in between like all the editing and stuff, but it's good to have like a comfort movie.

So my one of my favorite comfort movies for the season is Halloween three season of the witch from 82.

Obviously, like most notably, one of the the only movie in the Halloween series that has nothing to do with Michael Myers.

So it's kind of just an interesting thing that exists for that, but it's also a great movie.

I love Tom Atkins.

I mean, he's been in a bunch of John Carpenter films as well.

If you've seen like The Fog or like Escape from New York, Night of the Creeps, Maniac Cop, he's just kind of like this B movie staple.

John Carpenter did not direct.

I believe he had a hand in writing it and doing the music, but it was Tommy Lee Wallace who directed it, who edited, edited the original Halloween and the Fog.

And then I think he even goes back as far as like Dark Star with like collaborating for with John Carpenter.

And he's from Somerset, KY, so shout out Kentucky.

But yeah, check that movie out and check out Danzig if you haven't already.

I don't know how that would have happened, but if you haven't, definitely listen to it.

It's a great record.

Listen to the first four, at least go back, listen to Sam and I.

I would love to see some reissues of those records.

Listen to the Misfits.

It's fucking Halloween.

But yeah, it's it's hope you guys have a great Halloween.

Stay safe out there, Dylan.

Dylan, this is so many years in the making.

I'm so glad we finally pulled the trigger on this.

Yeah, well, you know, Buffalo gals coming out tonight.

You can follow us at Rift Worship Pod, Instagram, Twitter.

You can e-mail us at riftworshippod@gmail.com.

Reach out to us if there's anything you'd like us to to talk about.

Love to hear from you.

We do have some interviews coming up in the month of November, some fun ones, some fun records we're going to be talking about.

So definitely stay tuned.

But for myself or Master Roshi for a Bob Ross painting, you can listen to Riff Worship.

We'll be back next week with something else.

See ya.